Late Evening - Because nothing happened during the day in horror settings.

City Councillor McClaren was gathered with a large group of men and women of about twenty strong on the outskirts of Raccoon City Park, on the opposite side of where the evacuations had formerly been taking place.

In spite of the carnage the night before, there seemed to be very few undead lingering in the area. The horde that had formed in the aftermath of that tragedy had likely moved on.

"Alright, listen up!" Councillor McClaren called out, "We're going to make our way through the side of the park and head over the old bridge. We checked it out earlier, wasn't any of the infected but there's a good number of them outside of the Waste Treatment Plant."

Loading his shotgun, the politician pointed it in the direction of the waste treatment plant which loomed just over the trees in the distance, "Once we get there, most of us will deal with whatever is on the outside while a small group slips in with the engineers. Get the water back on or get out if you can't, nobody needs to die a hero today. We've all suffered through enough."

Not a coward in the least the big bearded Scottish-American man began to lead the way through Raccoon City Park towards the small old bridge.

Among the group of people, there was Archene Night wearing his usual shades and properly wearing a helmet and full combat armor. His face was looking rather plain and his breath very labored, but it may be hard to any to see any hints of pain on the man's face. He had spoken to his team earlier today about how vital restoring the water source was for them and the general state of the city's people. Or at least, saying that was good for how the people of the team saw him, which was very important.

Buck Rogers is one of those gathered. He's resolved to help out with the water crisis-- no amount of stoicism or berserker rage can punch out dehydration, after all. While his team holds down the fort, and promises to have water enough for him to bathe finally if they succeed, he's assembled in the park alongside the big-bearded politician. "We'll get the water back on," he says from behind his facemask, mentally including himself in the team that'll break in.

"Be lucky if half of us make it back." James mutters, infected red eyes beholding the survivors intent on turning the water on. Always intent on learning from his mistakes, the teenager added a set of of S.T.A.R.S armor over his charcoal wife beater and drab green cargo pants. He'd even went as far as to pair a riot shield with his favorite bat. "Just be glad to take a fucking shower after all this."

The National Guard had very little operational capability left. Fuel was in the dregs, depending on what diesal they could siphon out of the odd truck. Ammo was almost gone, at this point, and most of them had begun using the rifles as clubs when trying to enforce order among the remaining survivors... but their weren't enough of them to do even that. But this... needed to happen.

The small squad had been pulled from everyone who wasn't needed guarding the church. A scant group of five, using the supply of masks that the guardsman had left, in front of Major Stadler. Why he was here was a mystery in itself; as if leading from the Church would have been unconscionable.

"Listen up, folks. We're following the command of the councilman over there. He's the only one getting people together on this. No on die. If you do... hand off your ammo."

Benny came with Archene and James to the gather and after his near disasterous scavenging run not too long ago, he's happy for a chance to do something important to help the people of his fair City. He's still proud to be a S.T.A.R.S. member, even though some say the municipal government does not exist anymore and by default his authority might not be recognized but in his mind he's still a Cop. He is also dressed in his S.T.A.R.S. uniform with body armor and all his gear as if he's still on duty.

"Archene, James now will you look at all the people. See there is still life left in this city and this proves it." Benny says to his newest survival buddies and glances around, trying to see if there are any familiar faces. He would recognize Buck, but since he's dressed in completely different armor with a facemask, he's practically unrecognizeable to him at the momment, except he looks like a big scary dude with a chainsaw. Benny turns to James, "You gotta think positive man. Heck, you just came back from the dead dude."

Benny then hears a somewhat familiar voice and blinks, looking towards Doctor Richard Stadler, well Major Stadler now he supposes. "Huh, I think I know that guy...met him once with Emma." he says to both James and Archene.

McLaren had not lied about the lack of infected on the way to the Waste Treatment Plant, it takes about fifteen minutes to make your way through the outskirts of the park where you find as promised a small old bridge that leads across a stream towards the Waste Treatment Facility which is fenced up along the area.

A large break in the fence can be seen, likely where the undead had come into the park from during the evacuation.

rSammy, one of the Engineers speaks up, "Service lift is straight ahead through the side door into the main building. It can't hold many of us, but it will get us down to the plant control room and the emergency restarts. With luck, and a bit of hard work we'll get it going."

McClaren grinned and patted Sammy on the back, "No time like the present my boy. Let's give them a way in." McLaren wasn't a man of inaction, he immediately opened fire with his shotgun blasting the head off the closest zombie and calling out, "COME AND GET US!"

On the outskirts of those who've come kitted out to provide heavy support is a man in heavy, form-fitted combat armor, his features concealed by an equally heavy, sleekly deflectively-angled special ops helmet. Is it HUNK? No, the mystery commando has a Samurai Edge holstered on his chest, the custom markings on the gun perhaps giving Captain Wesker away to his old crew.

He keeps his peace as the briefing is given, the journey organized-- and simply, efficiently, hurries along his way towards the indicated entrance, combat knife held at the ready as he times his advance to take advantage of the... ... expert diversion. "Looks like the tanks are leaking into the plant's water supply..." Wesker observes, as much to himself as anyone nearby, as he notices just that. "Turning the water back -on- may not be enough."

During the trip, the armored colossus identifies the familiar faces within the crowd-- a familiarity his own kit obscures, he realizes when he catches Benny in the corner of his eye look at him blank-faced. The big brute shrugs a little at that, patting his chainsaw with a gloved hand, and leaves the reintroductions for another time. He's too busy thinking for idle conversation right this moment.

Once they're at the plant, moving in with the politician's convenient distraction, Buck's eyes fixate on a ruptured tank, following a trail of black slime toward the nearby lake. He walks up alongside Wesker with a nod. "Keep an eye on that lake," he warns. "Back before the outbreak, S.T.A.R.S. responded to a crisis at the Raccoon Zoo-- this shit got into the aquarium, and it does real nasty things to fish." The gruff man grunts. "Still. Gotta get this fixed before that matters. Let's go."

Stadler looks up to Benny, and nods. SOmeone he met before... a long, long time ago, when his concerns were finding another bar and not listening about dogs that were biting people. When he could go home. A lifetime ago. He gives another look, before moving to don his mask, pressing his palm onto the filter and blowing to clear the air out from inside. They didn't know what was going to go down there, but he wanted to be prepared. There was a reason he was carrying some test tubes into this place, as well.

As the politician makes his distraction, there's another pause. "Stay up top. Single shots, and aim for the head. Do /not/ wait for us if you start to get overwhelmed." He says, before heading down into the place himself, heading toward the lift with the rest of the heavily armored invidiuals.

When he got out of this, he'd stay at a desk for the rest of this life.

"Exactly, I already got my second chance. Doubt I'll rise from the dead again." James gives his shoulders a slight shrug. When the gun goes off he breaks into a run, heading for the lift with everyone else. "This is gonna be a pain in the ass, I know it."

"Guess, I might as well head into the elevator with the service crew." Benny says, his stomach grumbling something fierce and he looks a bit dehydrated. He was already kinda on the skinny side, but now he looks a bit more gaunt that usual. No bubble tea, taiwanese fried chicken or dim sum will do that someone who likes to eat several meals a day.

Benny glances around again as he walks with Archene and James, then spots some very familiar sunglasses attached to a somewhat familiar face, it's Captain Wesker and he's talking to that really big dude with the freaking chainsaw. He walks over to the Commander of S.T.A.R.S., giving him a small salute. "Captain Wesker. I'm Officer Benjaman Chan of Charlie Team. Good to see that you are alive, sir." Benny stands at attention in front of his commander, he's got good discipline it seems and respects the paramilitary rank structure. "I was on patrol with Rebecca Chambers and Trixie, we got separated. I couldn't get back to RPD headquarters but formed up with some civillians." He glances back to Archene and James. "I'm here to help."

The martial artist cop then glances up towards Buck once more and blinks, "Did you say Raccoon City Zoo? I was there with Charlie Team, the place was messed up and we were lucky to get out of there alive. Umm...Buck is that you?"

During the trip, Archene looked at Benny and James both were coming along in it seemed, "You two, once we are in, let's avoid distancing too much from one another. I don't want the possibility of leaving any of you behind." As he looks about he seems to notice some people may have known each other... Maybe they knew each other before this little apocalypse, but at least Benny seemed to remain communicative.

As he notices the black goop going into the water, he frowns, "A better question would be what is into those tanks. This is just a water treatment plant, not a sewage treatment one." He frowns a bit, letting out a cough but soon enough he looks more closely at the tank before staying about with Benny, "Benny, we can't dwadle here for too long, we have to escort these engineers while McClaren distracts them."

With that, he made sure to follow Sammy along, his right hand ready to take his pistol just in case there were zombies inside as well.

The infected in the area are drawn to the group serving as a distraction giving the six heavily armed and armored men a chance to break through the chaos with the Engineers. There is some limited power in the Water Treatment Plant when you enter the side door, the lights flickering on and off ominously to reveal the blood that covered the hallway.

There were strangely no sign of infected.

Sammy, undeterred by the horrific situation even as one of the engineers who had came turn and ran said, "Sonofabitch. I knew that guy was going to cut and run, was always a dog fucker." Hitting the button to open the lift he stepped in followed by the other Engineer.

"I don't know the situation down below, I only scouted out this far." Sammy explained, clearly having a pair of balls on him. When everyone was onboard he hit the button to close the lift door and it began to descend down the elevator shaft towards the lower levels of the Waste Treatment Plant.

The helmet obscures Wesker's dark smirk. It's a sign of the times when 'Glad you're not dead!' is enough reason for celebratory greeting. "Same to you, kid." Wesker offers Benny, nodding agreement with Buck's warnings. "Chambers linked up with me; she's alright, too. And you're right, Rogers-- it's already too quiet down here." -Something- made it that way.

More than a few disturbing potentialities flit through the Captain's imagination as he boards the elevator, wiping his fighting knife clean before trading it for his Samurai Edge, gloved digit flicking the safety to 'off'. "In and out." Wesker agrees, with a nod to Archene, reinforcing the point.

"Are you fucking kidding me? What if one of those monsters are down there?" James whisper-shouts at Sammy, his red eyes glowing a violent red. He probably looked like his father most in those moments, eyes cruel and expression hateful. "Maybe I was a little too generous with half."

"Yo, Benny," Buck responds, raising his left hand in two-finger salute. "I wondered how long it'd take you. Good to see Charlie made it-- I've heard a few other S.T.A.R.S. took refuge in the church with the Guard." He reaches out and gives the other man's back a big ol' friendly smack, and the shit-eating grin can be heard, if not seen. "Knew it'd take more than a little bit of an apocalypse to keep Charlie down. C'mon, let's get these people something to drink." Benny's identification of Wesker earns the Captain a brief look-- did Buck recognize him before, with his gun? Maybe, maybe not. "Won't be for long." As he moves with the group, making his way toward the front with Sammy, he hears Archene's musings... but Buck Rogers knows jack and shit about water treatment plants, so he shrugs. "Sammy," he asks as they're heading down. "Those tanks supposed to have gunk in 'em?" If anyone knows it'd be the tech-head, right?

As the group descends, the giant lovingly taps his fingers against the sleek, bloodstained black metal of his saw, finding the musical rat-a-tat-tap of his fingers mildly hypnotic. "Calm down, kid," he calls to James without looking. "We're professionals. I'll take point-- any of you shoot me, you're gonna spit teeth.""

The flickering lights around them, in other situations, would be annoying. Now it was goddamn terrifying. At least if their were undead, they'd make noise and /know/ what was coming. "Goddamn... places." He mutters, flicking on the light on the underside of the M4, flicking and pulling it up to peer in the darkness. Ready to lower it if they saw anything... but nothing so far. At least the cops over there seemed to know what they're doing... and he could remark on that. "You people seem to be professionals. Which I am not." He remarks, voice tiny through the vocalizer of his gas mask, rifle held ready as they head to the lift.

Archene nods at Sammy's words, quietly saying, "Then, everyone should be alert in that case." He draws his pistol just in case given the conditions. He has done 'this kind of thing before' and that tends to not end all too well, "James, if there is some monster here, we kill it. If there are two, we kill them. If there are too many, we kill as many as we can while we retreat. Simple as that." Then he looks at Stadler, "Just relax, don't panic and only shoot the undead in the head. It saves bullets and lives."

"Thank goodness Rebecca is alright and thanks sir. We'll talk more after." Benny replies to Wesker and nods to Archene when he tells him to keep focus.

But before he walks back to Archene, he smiles to Buck, his team commander from Charlie. "I knew that was you Sarge and glad you made it as well. Oh, yeah I bumped into Trixie near the Church, so you said all of Charlie made it? That is great. Oh and yeah, we'll talk later. I got your back as always."

Benny walks back to Archene and James, nodding to them after listening to them talking. He grips his MP7 and scans the area ahead of him, making sure that his arc of responsibility is covered as they escort Sammy to wherever it is they are going.

Richard Stadlergives a slightly annoyed look at Archene, but keeps his comments to himself, as he counts to ten. He wanted to say that wasn't going to happen, that he /knew/ how this was suppose to be handled, but that didn't mean he wasn't still fighting off the licking, caustic flames of panic. "I know that." He says, instead, keeping it simple. Maybe there weren't to many on the bottom floor. Maybe. Perhaps. Well, not really. A quick look to Benny. "Trixie. You're talking about Sergeant Mackenize? Last I saw, she was still alive, though not many Guard is left.

"Seems like it," Buck confirms for Benny. "Takes more than this city's got to fuck with Charlie." The big man rolls his shoulders back, squares himself, and stares at the elevator doors. "If there's too many down here to kill, we kill 'em anyway. I need a fuckin' bath, man."

The lift shudders to a halt as it reaches the bottom level, the lighting conditions down here far worse, only every few of the lights in the hallway ahead of you seemed to be flickering on and off with most of them remaining dead or even broken.

The stench of decay is worse down here than it was above and you can feel your stomach turning.

This was your last chance to turn back.

Sammy echoed the sentiment as he opened the lift door and stepped out, an old revolver in his hand as he bravely began to lead the way, "If you wanna be a chickenshit like Jeb, make sure to send the lift back down for us."

Fearless or foolhardy, he continued forward, "Control room is just around the corner."

"There's a reason each of you was selected for S.T.A.R.S." It's affirming, team-confidence stuff; if also somewhat more nefariously true, in this setting. "Keep your head, know when to move and have the spot picked out-- we'll make it through this yet." Both in terms of the foreboding plant looming ahead of them, and the larger picture at hand. Wesker occupies the opposite flank of the structure as that taken up by Buck's bulk, advancing smoothly but patiently, armored back to the wall, silenced pistol angled downwards. "We'll have to play catch-up after we're out the -other- side of this." The Captain agrees-- and refocuses.

Archene quietly draws his pistol with his right hand moments before stepping out of the elevator, readying himself for anything that may come. He gives Stadler a brief nod. This whole situation could become rather, unconfortable rather quickly. It was good to be ready for later. He speaks no more to the team, speaking now would only take away focus that could be used against the Unknown ahead of them.

"Well, here we go." James follows off the elevator, raising his shield in preparation. "When we get there, how long will it take to fix things?" he asks aside to Sammy. "I've seen enough zombie films to know how staying in a place like this for too long usually ends." Though it may just be the assassins in the room making his skin crawl.

The wave of nauseating rot rolls over Buck-- it turns his stomach, and it's only his experience with fetid crime scenes on the force and this city of the damned that keeps his lunch down. You can get used to these things, but they're never, ever pleasant. "Watch where you're going, Sammy," he calls out, hurrying along with the engineer-- who knows what monstrosity lurks down here? The technician's life is one of the highest priorities here-- the lives of anyone who could conceivably repair this are more important than the grunts. It's an unpleasant thought, but running a utility function on human life is a necessary part of command. Buck's willing to be up ahead, because like hell his life's got cosmic significance; he's just along for the ride.

Down te lift does, furthur down, until it was at the left it should have been, before the rifle comes back up. Light was off for the moment, but he was ready to tun it back on when they popped out from the darkness. At least he could keep it quiet.

Benny is somewhat blind as a bat at the moment, his stomach grumbling rather embarrassingly in the elevator the whole way down. So hungry, getting HANGRY! The stench down here is bad though, but there is nothing in his poor stomach to upchuck anyways, in fact it kinda smells like steak down here or is that just in his head. Benny glances back to Wesker, feeling kinda proud of his Commander's uplifting comments and nods at the tactical advice. He takes a step off the elevator, escorting Sammy and points his MP7 down the hallway and gets himself ready.

Sammy and the other Engineer were close to Buck as they moved forward around the corner, Sammy pointed his flashlight to a closed door at the end of the hallway, "There it is." Charlie, an older black man who had been days from retirement before this wiped his brow, "Man, I dun like dis. We shouldn't be he---"

Charlie was cut-off midsentence as something pulled him into the darkness, his screams echoing through the corridors.

A disgusting creature made of sinewy flesh and muscle with a large maw of teeth and what appeared to be its brain on the outside of its head leaped directly into Buck.

Sammy swore under his breath, shining his flashlight at ceiling, "I'LL GET TO THE CONTROL ROOM, LEAVE ME IF YOU HAVE TO!" Sammy broke into a run straight for that door, he wasn't going to abandon the mission.

Aside from the Licker on Buck, three more Lickers were on the ceiling preparing to attack.

Cursing himself under his breath for not noticing the ambush, but not precisely shocked by it, Wesker wastes no beats in using his flanking position to draw a bead on the licker lunging for Rogers with that fine laser dot. Trying for surgical precision to remove this new, hostile growth, and probably not eager to shoot Buck in general, the Captain's first shot is wide, but the second bites fiercely into the creature's flank, adding a spatter of its blood to that drawn from the S.T.A.R.S. behemoth. "Cover each other!" Wesker -strongly- advises, "Focus your fire, don't let them pin anyone in!"

Archene doesn't waste time cursing himself or anything. Focusing fire and covering for each other, good suggestions for the group. Without any unnecessary rambling, he raised his pistol and shot two bullets onto the creature. While on only hits its chest, the other one seems to go through the creature's mouth. Pesky creatures. He frowned slightly, though others may not notice it in the situation.

Well, things just went from slightly creepy to /terrifying/, as one of those engineers gets snatched up and torn away from them, screaming. And it seems then the city hasn't shown everything horrible to Stadler until today. "What the /fuck/ are those things?" He breathed, once, as everything turned into cacphony, gunfire sounding as those lancer-like tongues darted and flicked. Rifle training from left to right, until one of those damned things grabs onto one of the heads of the party. "Goddamn it!" He yells, traininng his rifle on that creature, pulling the trigger twice. One round slams and flicks against concrete, while the other seems to dig into... into /something/. But nothing he could see.

The group is ambushed from the darkness; even Buck's goggles do nothing when the enemy comes from unexpected angles, and he's caught thoroughly off-guard when the monstrous, no-skinned entity crashes into him, snarling and dripping with that warm saliva stank. Its claws tear into him, crashing against the plates of his armor, shredding fabric and knocking him back against a rail lining the narrow hall. He brings up an arm as those terrible teeth snap together, one beefy arm against its throat preventing it from getting closer. "Shoot it!", he barks, holding it at bay-- and the group responds, muzzle flares lighting the darkness with percussive bursts, putting down the beast. It slumps to the ground.

"Alri--" He spoke too soon, as another one of the freakazoids lunges at him. He bats aside its claws with the flat of his chainsaw, the metal-on-claw sending a spray of spark embers up, but the second slash catches him again.. in roughly the same spot as the first, pushing in the damaged plates and shredding his chest to ribbons, nicking his ribcage-- it's a brutal hit, and Buck sprays crimson-flecked spit onto the ground, gasping for breath. The pain rolls through him in fever waves, and all he sees is a bloody red.

Benny is very HANGRY, especially after seeing his Team Leader, Buck Rogers getting tongued by the Licker and his new buddy, James's get his whole head tongued tied by the second nasty looking Licker. "Multiple contacts! What the fuck are they...look like facehuggers had sex with giant Gecko!" Time seems to slow down now, he hears Wesker barking out orders to concentrate fire, then the small hallway gets lit up by the muzzle flashes of all the guns and bullet casings are flying all over the place.

Benny, runs up to the front and stands in front of Buck protectively. He aims his MP7 at the Licker that has James's head. "I said no french kissing on the first date asshole!" He lets off two bursts from his MP7 and scores hits on both shots. The licker didn't die but it sure looks badly injured.

"Oh fuck!" James starts at all the monsters, "I fucking tol- HMPH!" Just like that his head is enveloped by tongue, and not in the way he'd normally prefer. Despite his best efforts he just can't seem to get out, or manage to clip the thing with his bat. This just may be where he dies. Or worse.

All but dancing in the dark despite the heavy armor he wears, Albert Wesker is one step ahead of the licker that pounces on him, its claws reaving air as he strides several smooth steps clear-- and then unloads on his attacker. He flicks the fire mode of his M92F over to three-round burst, and a quick succession of muzzle flashes, the receiver's action more audible than the rounds themselves, announces a peppering of 9mm rounds that rip into the B.O.W.'s flesh, sending it reeling and buying himself precious time. With a glance Wesker surveys the carnage, and nods; it'll do. "This may not be all of them!" Even if, just now, he may not -need- to warn anyone to keep their guard up.

Archene shoots at the creature twice... this time, not as successfully as last time as the bullet hits a wall and the other one does little to the creature. He moves a bit aaway from James in between the shots as well, not like it would be any good to remain too close to each other, even if it would not be good to be far away from each other.

The Licker that had been tearing apart Charlie had returned unnoticed and leapt towards Rick out of nowhere seemingly, tearing into his chest viciously before grabbing the man by the left leg with his tongue to drag him away for sexy times.

There is a lot going on. If zombies were bad, this was worse. The zombies were a moving mass, but at least they were slow. You could seem them coming like a glacier. These seemed to be... /everywhere/, darting around, tongues attempting to wrap, claw, and peirce... but at least they were dealing with professionals. Or whatever you called someone who had a chainsaw digging through flesh and bone around them. There was one surviving target in front of them after this, crawling forward, and Stadler doesn't want to take any chances. Lining up the shot, he sends out one burst, making sure it doesn't get up.

He takes a breath, looking around. There were wounded. "Did anyone see-"

And he's cut off when another Licker, the one that decided to eat the other engineer, leaps toward him. There's a yell... all right, a scream, one of terror, as those claws dig through the vest meant to deflect bullets, deep into the stomach, almost disembowling. And that's before he's grabbed, and pulled to the ground, dragged over. "God... fuck! Help! /Help!/" It's shrill as he desperately tries to get his hands on his gun, slick with blood on the grip.

Bathed in a spray of blood and gore and blind to his injuries, Buck Rogers continues to wade into the fray, swept up in a berserker fury that keeps the mind-numbing pain at bay, rushing down the remaining licker and tearing into it with frenzied slashes, filling the narrow tunnel with the sound of whirling metal and screaming man-meat.

"Ah, fuck!" James pulls the tongue from off his face, attention moving to the Licker attempting to mount Richard. "Hey! No red-rocket!" With that the teen rushes forward, well limps forward, slamming the bat into where the thing's scortum /should/ be. He hasn't checked for sure yet. "Down!"

"My momma always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are!" Benny yells out as he moves, then fires two more bursts from his MP7 aimed at the Licker who was dodging Buck's attacks like Bruce Lee fighting that guy, from that movie, where he kicked that guys ass. The first burst wasn't even close but the second one hits but it was more of a grazing shot than anything else. "Damnit..."

Rick seems doomed as the Licker displays immense luck or prowess in evading every attack presented against it in an effort to dislodge Rick. Even worse? At least half a dozen more Lickers are seen first by Wesker and then by the rest of the group approaching.

Some of them leap down towards Rick.

In an instant Rick is covered in a swarm of hungry Licker's who are all about to rip into him with their claws when they STOP!

The Lickers all go running off into the darkness in the direction opposite the lift you had arrived from suddenly, out of sight in what seems to be the blink of an eye.

Whirring machinery and gears can be heard turning and Sammy emerged from the control room shouting, "I DID IT!" Rejoining the rest of the group he explains, "Couple biters in there but I dealt with them. Looks like you guys had quite the fight."

Offering Rick his hand to help him out, he says, "We should get out of here before more of those things come." Clearly he had not seen everything just go running.

The bloodlust fades, and the searing pain in Buck's chest comes back to life. The chainsaw quiets, and stills, ready to be woken at a moment's notice--but for now, like the world around them, it's eerily quiet.. save for the pattering of licker feet in the darkness. Peering through his nightvision goggles, staring down the length of the hallway, the hairs on the back of the man's neck stir, and his adrenaline-lit instincts growl at him. "Sammy," he asks, quick and forceful. "Is there another exit out of this place?"

Sammy replies nervously, "The main stairwell, which is filled with biters, it's where we locked them..." He considers it, "Or through the waste treatment tanks themselves, there's an emergency valve that can be used to release them out into the lake in the case of emergency."

"Quiet!" It comes in a stern whisper, as Wesker holds up a gloved hand to reinforce the demand, not ready to celebrate just yet. There's a beat after that, the Captain focusing his attention back down the hallway, around that now-ominous corner... "Good question." He murmurs to Buck, before nodding the behemoth over to the opposite side of the corridor that Wesker moves to occupy, himself, crouching to a stable firing position and holding there, for the moment. "There's something back that way." -That- way-- you know the one. The one with the lift. "And the things are -running- from it." So, probably, should they. "I say we cut through the dead."

"We're not dumping anything into the lake." James pipes up, taking a moment to rest from his wounds. "I'll shoot anybody that tries it." He doesn't really look in the shape to be shooting anything. "We'll cut through the dead." is offered in agreement with Wesker.

Archene seems tense as the Lickers run away, as he notices it may be just nothing. He frowns slightly as Wesker tells people to be quiet, "I trust that it is better we go through the fastest path. There is -certainly- something that way," he points the same way as Wesker, "If we try to cut through them, it may just get to us from behind, while we are fighting them. We all know that fighting in two fronts would be no good, if we are to cut through the dead, we have to be quick, or kill whatever is coming before anything." He frowns slightly, not that such can easily be noticed currently.

"Well, that's great. That is just fucking great, Sammy. Now what the fuck are we supposed to do? We're in some real pretty shit now, man." Benny replies to Sammy and then grins, "Sorry, I just always wanted to say that in a real life situation and it was on my bucket list." He gives Sammy a light punch on the shoulder and then blinks when Wesker yells out Quiet. He is about to open his mouth again to use another movie quote but decides against it...for now.

He glances from Buck to Wesker, as they talk and then pipes up. "Yup, I like Wesker's idea...I have a bad feeling about them tanks and I'd rather fight regular slow moving stupid zombies than, sharks with friggin laser beams attached to their heads or something." Yeah, the movie quotes just keep on coming. "Besides, I have clue how the heck you guys even know all this shit." He shrugs and then looks towards, Rich. "You don't look so good man. I think we need a medic, anybody here a medic? Medic...need medical attention and uh, Buck you okay? That don't look so good either." He reloads his MP7 and racks it, waiting for someone to tell him where to go.

COould only see red in the illumination of his gun's flashlight for a long, frightening moment... and then they were scattering like cockroaches when you turned on the light, leaving Stadler gasping and wheezing. Aderenline coursing through his system, slacking off so he can really feel the pain. His hand moves to deserpately grip at his stomach, the other taking the engineer's arm as he's helped up. Still in a bit of a daze and in a rather large amount of almost blinding pain from the wound. And being told that they had to fight their way through it. "What if-" He says, before coughing. Hacking. "What if it's the machines that made them run? Do you think we can deal with /all/ of those /things/? I see... there's bad wounds here. We need to get top side, before anything else happens." He leaves out the gnawing fact that they might already be dead.

He looks over to Benny, for a moment, a long moment, before stumbling around to Buck. "I've got very bad news for you." He says to Benny, looking over Buck's wound, while holding his own. "If it's bad, we- God-" Another fit of coughing. "It's deep. Lungs. We can't treat it here, and you're saying we can't wait."

"Where we locked them means it's *locked*," Buck observes, "well enough to keep all these things in. But this ain't waterproof." He pats his chainsaw, and winces, pressing a hand to his chest-- certain movements stretch the chest muscles more than others, and his black-gloved hand comes away glistening red. "I'm not dead," he responds to Benny, though he's winded and he begins to walk, because sitting around debating does no one any good. Rick's concern is noted, and he briefly offers the other man his arm to help him walk. "I say we go through the tanks. If we get stuck in a stairwell, too small, too many things, we'll be swarmed. We don't have time-- hold your breath and pray to God."

"If we're going to fight whatever's coming that way." The Liftway. "We do it at the end of a long, open corridor with one approach." Somewhere, quite obviously, just like here. "It isn't much, but..." Wesker pulls a First Aid Spray from his belt and moves to use it on Stadler; everyone is mangled, but that fellow looks to have it the worst. "Night and I can try to slow it down, while you find out if an escape route is fast enough." The Commander offers in a sort of compromise. "Or everyone sets their weapons down that hallway and we pray to god it falls before we do."

James' nostrils flare with annoyance at Buck's suggestion of using the tanks, and his hand actually falls to the pistol holstered at his side. Maybe he's serious about shooting them. "No. We'll have came down here and almost died for nothing. And I'm not cool with that."

Sammy replies with a shrug of his shoulders, "You saw the shit outside leaking into the lake. Who knows, but we need to get moving. Make a fucking decision, or I'm going to make it for you." He reached into his worker vest and began to pull out rounds for his revolver as he began to reload it, "So what's up action heroes? What's the plan?"

An angry roar could be heard, it echoed through the hallways of the plant, it was one of pure rage and fury. It was stomping down the hallway where the lift was and was no doubt close, likely past the lift at this point.

The word, "STAAAARRRRS." Echoed through the plant hallways... It was almost upon you.

With the team split between the stairwell and the potentially quicker egress through the tanks, Wesker moves back up to the intersection of the 'T' corridor to keep those options open to them. He holsters his pistol and swings the oversized rifle off his back, settling in carefully and sighting the rifle in down the hallway. "Better get moving. I suggest the stairs." The Captain calmly reiterates. "This thing isn't going to stop coming." Anyone who isn't adding firepower: The S.T.A.R.S. Commander isn't going to indicate the passage beyond him a third time.

Stadler looks up, to the sound of the creature, before starting to walk toward the corridor with the water tanks, hobbling along. "Where that things going, we need to go the opposite way. Now. It's heavily armed and it will /kill/ us all. If it's coming from the lift, we take the stairs." He says, wincing as he looks up. "Even if this is going to hurt."

James almost drops his bat when he hears that roar. "Run." his words are quiet, almost a squeak. As for him? He grips Lucille with white knuckles, thoughts of vengeance swimming through his head. "Nemesis is coming."

Benny is patching up James the best he can with some basic first aid he learned as a Police officer, which is pretty much put some antiseptic cream on the wound then bandage it.

Benny blinks, when he hears angry roars then something yelling out the name of his unit. "What the /fuck/ is that!? Let me guess it isn't some super crazed fan boi who wants our picture...Nemsis? Oh shit, that thing that Markus and you were telling us about. Run? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea...Hey, wait up!" He slaps Buck on the shoulder as he runs past, "Buck, tactical fucking reposition!" He just follows everybody else towards the stairs it looks like.

'Did someone, say that is Nemesis?' Archene looks the way whatever said STARS was... he puts his pistol in his holsters before taking the rifle from his back. He looks down the intersection, frowning. The pain in his lungs intensifying moment as he coughs, "You are right, everyone... Benny, be sure to keep James safe, Markus might be able to give him some aid back at the base." He moves to Weskers side... or almost, if not for the fact he is a few steps behind him, ready to attempt to slow down whatever comes their way. He won't let it take down everyone.

The grotesque and terrifying B.O.W. looked like it had recently suffered some heavy damage in an engagement with something. Half of the armor was missing and the flesh beneath seemed to be pulsating and growing as if it was evolving.

The arm that had once held the rocket launcher was a series of tentacles that had sprouted forth, dragging along on the ground as it walked. The other hand still had the minigun attached though, although the keen eyes of Wesker and Archene would notice that it was running low on ammunition based on the fact that the belt feed for the minigun was dragging.

In the close corridors though, when it opened fire it was sure to be nigh unavoidable.

Sammy helped carry Rick towards the locked door and reached into his vest removing a key and unlocking it before telling Buck, "Hey. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, clear us a path man." He looked to Richard and smiled, "You're going to be ok. We're going to get out of here."

Nemesis had other ideas in mind and as it spotted the group it didn't open fire with any degree of accuracy or precision, it simply focused on unloading as much firepower as it could without any conservation of ammunition.

Numerous members of the team were filled with bullets as Nemesis stopped firing. The minigun was released and dropped to the ground as it began to advance..

The veritable storm of bullets unleashed by Nemesis -- and now Buck can get a glimpse of him, in the darkness of the T-junction, the Tyrant's grotesque and mutated form standing out clear as day -- is damn near impossible to miss, and Buck gets whacked in the leg. He's lucky it missed his knee; he can still walk, and given how much his fight-or-flight instinct is triggered right now, he barely feels a thing, gritting his teeth, smashing his hand into a wall with an angered grunt. "Let's go," he mutters, putting his wounds out of mind; everyone's hurt, after all. He rips on the chainsaw's pull coard and it springs to laugh, and his good leg kicks open the unlocked door. Soaked in the blood, bone, and skin of the lickers, head-to-toe covered, Mr. Chainsaw Massacre charges through the stairwell. He's single-minded: climb, decapitate or bisect whatever's in front of him, climb. There's no need to kill everything. Anyone behind him will be absolutely drenched.

Archene makes a show at dodging incoming shots in the little corridor, but he probably attracted too much attention given how much ammo is wasted on him. Regardless of his masterful reflexes however, a bullet rips through his leg... after that there is little to save it as more bullets hit it. He takes position, even through the pain, and shoots squarely at Nemesis' head.

After that, there is little else he can do in his position, "Retreat," he slings the Arbiter back before bolting, towards the stairs. Unevenly bolting towards the stairs. Where he may fight his way through zombies, by hopefully letting someone with a chainsaw rip their way through so they can all leave together.

A minigun round catches Wesker squarely in the chest, impacting painfully, perhaps bloodily despite the dragonskin protection, but he holds his position, keeps his aim. In the darkness, the NVDs covering his gaze are nonetheless removed; Wesker sights down the scope. He fires twice: the first .50 caliber anti-vehicle round catches Nemesis in the center of mass in return, tearing a chunk out of the creature on its way clean through the muscular biomass it bisects.

The second round brings a smile to the Captain's face as it hits home... splitting the creature's skull into a lopsided mass atop what passes for its neck as chunks of skull and gray matter paint the hallway behind in spattering viscera. "That should slow it down." The Commander muses dryly. .... and show them exactly what this Tyrant is capable of, on top of that.

Wesker throws the anti-materiel rifle back over his shoulder by its strap, turning back to his reliable fighting knife as he enters the staircase behind the others...

"Next time." James vows, pointing Lucille at Nemesis as it's head explodes. "Next time I'll show you what we Marcus' are made of." As he turns to quickly limp up the stairs it becomes obvious that he's completely given up on his mother and step-father and forsaken the name he grew up with. Perhaps it wasn't the way he expected, but down with the monsters James Scott died, leaving James Marcus Jr. to climb the steps back to safety.

Benny manages to dodge the full automatic burst of mini-gun fire from Nemesis with lightnight reflexes and is running beside James. Archene said to watch over him and James took quite the beating already from the Licker trying to french kiss his face off. As the mini-gun rips into everybody, he does what every good Canadian boy would do. Take that hard body check for the team so he shields James body with his own and feels the rounds ripping right through his nearly mint condition S.T.A.R.S. body armor that he's polished every day since he's gotten it. Undershit be damned! "Fuck! That does it!"As the mini-gun whines on empty, Benny turns and fires two bursts from his MP7, he's so mad and Nemesis is so big, all his bullets find their mark and he even aims the last shot, which is just a single to hit it in the nards. Cause getting hit in the balls has to hurt even for a freaking mutated tank right?

"How you like them apples, eh Nemesissie!" It seems like the added firepower from Wesker, Archene and then Benny was the coup de grace. Although much debate about how had the final kill shot will sure to rage on for several decades or even centuries by the scholars.

Officer Benjaman Chan, then coughs up some blood and runs his ass off towards the stairs. Zombies converge on him, but he pulls out his trusty hookshot and grins. "I'm Batman!" he growls in a low husky voice and fires off the grappling hook, which catches something at the top of the stairs as he zips up the line! "Ah shit forgot to drop my smokebomb...." a few seconds later a pellet hits the ground, fizzles and smoke poofs into the air!

The group of seven including Sammy all make it out alive where they find almost everyone except Councillor McLaren dead as an overwhelming horde of undead is drawn into the area. All of Rick's national guardsmen have perished and it appears McLaren is using the SAW the team had brought to great effect.

When he sees the group emerge he calls out, "Come on, let's get out of here."

As they run away, Sammy takes a few shots at zombies to cover McLaren and you all escape the area as you hear a terrifying roar echo into the night.